Thank you to the member from Toronto Centre. I want to congratulate them on their success in the election.

One thing she said earlier on—she was talking about health care—was, we’re not investing; we’re in fact making a cut. She was talking about the dollars towards—versus the cost of living and the inflation rate being at 8.1%.

Some 27 years ago, Speaker, as you know, the former Conservative government under Mike Harris cut OW and ODSP by 21%.

Then, in 2018-19, they started bragging about the 1.5% increase.

And then this budget is looking at 5%.

With your lived experience of being on social assistance, can you explain what it means when you can’t make ends meet, when you don’t make enough money even to pay for rent, let alone for food or hydro?

My question is to the Premier.

Premier, I want to tell you about Jennifer LeFeuvre. In 2019, Jennifer signed a contract and put down a deposit for a new home to be built in Stayner, Ontario, by Briarwood Development Group—whose CEO happens to be a big donor of the Premier and the PC Party.

Three years later, Jennifer is still waiting for her home to be built, and now the developer has told Jennifer that she needs to pay an additional $175,000 for the home or the contract is broken and she won’t be getting her home at all.

Jennifer is devastated. As she describes it, “These people are getting away with murder and there’s nothing that I can do.”

Premier, can you step in and ensure this developer honours the deal they made to build Jennifer a home at the original price?

This is my question to the Premier: Can you properly strengthen Ontario’s laws so homebuyers are protected from developers who price-gouge?

CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions represents 55,000 education workers. These are the early childhood educators, the administrative workers, the bus drivers, the custodians, the maintenance workers. Despite being the backbone of the education system, their pay is so low that many of these full-time workers have to work part-time jobs just to make ends meet. This is shameful.

My question is to the Premier. The OSBCU contract expires on August 31. I’m wondering, will the Conservative government ensure these workers can keep up with the rising cost of affordability by providing them with a pay increase that keeps pace with this rising cost of living?

My question is for the Premier.

The Jeffs family has come to my office looking for help. Their son has autism. He received $20,000 under the Ontario Autism Program, in March 2020. Unfortunately, COVID-19 hit and this government could not get their act together, and they were not able to use that money. Their son was five at the time. Now, services are open once again, but they’re still not able to use the money. The child is now eight and this government is asking for them to pay the money back. This is supposed to be a needs-based program. There is no age cut-off at five, yet this government is asking for the $20,000 to be returned.

Can the government explain why they’re asking for this family to return $20,000 that they need for their child’s services?